Until You Marry Me
by Glimare
Summary: One Shot (future AU?): Why is Tsuruga Ren working as a gardener at an elementary school in Kyoto? Kyoko wonders this every time she sees him there, and she already knows the answer, but she doesn't want them to be the answer. Did he have to be Kuon while he was at it? Activity for DA Skipbeat-Fan group.


HI there! :D long time no see! So this group I'm in on Deviantart had a small challenge to write a story or draw a picture of a character with a different job than what they have. I decided to do Ren as a gardener, but as a scene for a fic I've been thinking about for a long time. Details on that below later. If someone wants to continue the idea, ask me. i'm a bit busy to do more than one shots right now (RL SUCKS! Can barely afford rent and student loans right now T-T) and I barely do those.

So yeah, enjoy! I need more money...

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 **Until You Marry Me**

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Kyoko couldn't help but watch in both horror and amazement as the legend of a man meticulously turned a tree into a giraffe. The children at the elementary school were going to love it, especially a certain child they both knew very well.

But the fact Tsuruga Ren was an elementary school gardener still horrified her. This was the man who could have flown through the stars with his acting! Dazzled the world with his modeling! And here he was, in cheap pair of overalls, tending to lawns and turning plants into animal for kids to stare at.

Course no one knew he was Tsuruga Ren. The actor fell from the limelight since the time she disappeared from his life. No one in the media could explain it since they didn't know about the two being close so no one made the connection. To add to that, he no longer took the appearance of Tsuruga Ren. He dyed his hair blond again, no longer changing it from his natural shade, and he removed the contacts he kept in for years as the actor. There, the world knew him only as Hizuri Kuon, gardener for a children's school.

"What. Are you. Doing?" Kyoko continued to gape at the man even as he turned on his ladder to see her at last. She too had returned to her state from long ago: long black hair pulled into a bun, hand-me-down clothes, and obscure in every way possible. Yet when he looked at her, he only seemed to see her, and it made her feel all those emotions from the past she tried so hard to suppress. His childish grin to her only made it worse.

"Don't you like it? I'm sure Yuki-chan will."

"That's not the point," she muttered from down below. Why did he have to be so charming? Even now? It was hard to be a responsible woman when he looked at her this way. This was the reason she left his side, left acting and Tokyo and her life there. One smile from him and she was done for.

He almost leapt off the ladder he was on – another odd tendency she noticed with him was his impatience to using normal methods to greet her – and sondered over to where she stood on the opposite side of the low fence. Even with the barrier between them, she felt he was too close. She could feel the blood rushing to her face as he smiled that smile just inches from her face.

"Then, pray-tell," he almost crooned to her, smiling from ear to ear, "what is the point?"

Kyoko mustered up the courage to ask him the question yet again. "What are you doing here? You're an actor, the best there's ever been! And you're scrambling around on your hands and knees in a school yard, making plant sculptures! You're better than this."

"So are you." Kuon poked at her name tag, proving she worked a second job and barely had any time to herself. "Rising star Kyoko. Vouched for my many high class actors and producers. Vanished without a word to anyone for unknown reasons."

"You know the reasons," she muttered darkly.

"Only now that I'm a gardener." He cheekily grinned at her, daring her to say something different. "And you're a hostess, twice over. Funny how things change."

"Tsuru-"

"Kuon," he insisted firmly. They had this discussion over and over again, and yet Kyoko couldn't completely get into the habit of calling him by his true name. Stupid fairy.

"How long are you going to keep up this farce?" Seriously, how long would it take before people saw who he really was and brought the press in on this scoop? The risk certainly wasn't worth the reward.

"I don't know," he stated coolly, challenging her. "How long until you agree to marry me and give Yuki-chan her father?"

Her blush returned with a vengeance. How could he be so persistent! She left because she couldn't bare losing her mind and soul to romance again, and yet just before leaving, she gave in entirely to him and… Though she loved her daughter with all her heart, more than she loved him, she could not condone what she did that night with this man. She knew how he felt, he knew how she felt, and things just spiraled out of control! Kyoko left the acting world to save Tsuruga Ren's future and what little sanity she had left within her, taking with her a child too similar to her own story.

"Kuon-san -"

"Just Kuon."

"I..." She sighed, trying to strengthen her will against his. Wasn't really working. Instead she passed a large bento to him. "I'm tired. Make sure Yuki-chan and you eat today and watch her until dinner time."

"If that's what you really want." He took the bento and her hand before she could pull away, kissing it lightly. Her legs wanted to be jelly at that moment but she stood her ground. His eyes looked up to her own, promising a never ending desire to stay at her side. One thing she wanted but did not deserve to have. Why did he have to be so perfect? "I look forward to dinner tonight."

"You'll have to pay for it." Sneaky devil. Always weaseling into any moments he could have with her and Yuki-chan.

"I would pay any price to have our family whole Kyoko."

And her limit hit maximum. Silently she pulled her hand out of his and stepped away. She bowed respectively and walked the rest of the way home to the inn. She knew he watched her walk away and knew he would lose the smile, becoming the puppy she could not resist in the past. So she didn't look back.

Not until she turned a corner and found a hole in a fence to see what he did next.

Kuon watched where she disappeared to for a brief while longer, sadly holding the bento in his hands. His eyes closed and he let out a dejected sigh, as if expecting her reaction but hoping a little for a different result. His eyes opened again and he looked down at the bento, a sad smile now on his face. Gently he lifted it to his lips and kissed the package, sending shivers down Kyoko's spine and making her redder than before.

He kept it in one hand as he collected his gardening tools and set about putting it away before the children came out for lunch. Shortly thereafter the bell would ring and he would meet up with their daughter to share the meal she prepared for them. Yuki-chan loved having lunch with him and spoke of his stories often when he wasn't around. This was their time.

And it broke Kyoko's heart that they couldn't be together like that at every meal.

Sighing, the former actress returned to walking home, dreaming of a life in which Kuon was just a gardener and she just a hostess at a hotel. No Shou, no acting, just them. Maybe then they could have married and had Yuki-chan properly. He seemed happy as a gardener, and he looked really good in that jumpsuit, but nothing compared to how brilliantly he shone as an actor. Him being there only reminded Kyoko of the world she couldn't have. And it just broke her heart.

END

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A/N: SO! about this AU... it's more of a future fic than an AU honestly. Roughly Kyoko throws in the towel (with recent issues I can definitely see it happen now) and the last person she sees is Ren. They end up sharing a night together and Ren starts thinking everything's going to go their way, when he realizes she's gone and no one can find her. He spends the better part of the next seven years depressed and starts down a self-destructive path because he wants to find her so badly. Near the end of that time, he visits Kyoto as Kuon and the spot he first met Kyoko, trying to finally let go of her and fix his life (this is where the story actually starts). Instead, a little girl who looks almost exactly like her (green eyes!) finds him there and asks if he's a fairy. Laughing to himself, he talks to her for a while until her mother calls out to her. Low and behold! *evil grin* So Kyoko's shocked to see him and Kuon's not too happy about her running off like that and suddenly having a kid. When he realizes the girl is his, he proposes right then and there. Kyoko thinks he's trying to 'do the right thing' when in truth he's still head over heels in love with her and adores their child (more upset he missed out on the girl's life than whether Kyoko had a kid at all). Determined to not go back to Tokyo and acting without them, Kuon sets up shop there and works at their daughter's school as a gardener until he can manage to get Kyoko to love him again and say yes.

There's more to the story, clearly, and that's only up to this short's point. Sounds like a lot of fun doesn't it. Usually don't write these kinds of things out of order, but it felt right for these two love idiots. Again, if you want to continue this idea, come ask and I'll give more details.

In other news, I have a youtube channel! Which I'm hardly using. Same name as here. later skaters.


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